Our Town

Speak Out

Bob Beck Holden

*With apologies to Thornton Wilder

Do you remember the old Atkins gas station? It was on the corner of Main Street and Reservoir where the Mobil station sits now. It had a single pump and the familiar red Pegasus. I think there was a grocery market beside the single pump station and perhaps a soda fountain. I'm not sure because I didn't live in Holden back then. I lived in Worcester nearby the State Mutual, now All America, company.

Holden was the frontier to me when

was a kid. A group of six to ten of us would ride our bicycles out here during the summer. We didn't do it every week but it provided an adventuresome diversion to the summer heat and boredom.

Almost always our destination was the confluence of the Quinapoxet River and Trout Brook off Manning Street. There were steel cables there that were used by the electric company to move men and supplies across the river to work on the high-tension lines. We would have a great time building a campfire to toast our sandwiches and spend the afternoon bouncing on the cables.

At times we would stop in the sandpit that was at the site where Wachusett and Highland Street come together at the bottom of Temple Hill. Funny how things happen, that's where I live today on Farragut Way.

After school and a hitch in the Navy

needed a place to settle down and raise a family. Holden was the only place I looked. I started with a small house on Doyle Road, until my family outgrew it, and moved to Parker Ave. and eventually to Farragut Way where I am now, even though the kids have all moved away.

Over the last 40 years there were reported good times and bad times but

guess we were lucky because while doom and gloom was being reported it was always we were doing OK. The kids played sports and we always had the money for gloves, bats, registration fees, and what ever was needed for them to enjoy being kids. We sacrificed a little at times but nothing we couldn't afford.

As they grew the town was growing also. We built Mountview and added to it after the junior high burned down. It was a sacrifice for us but it was needed to keep the town growing and to secure the future of our kids. Then a few years later we needed to replace Rice School and Chaffins School, and significantly enlarge Dawson. We came together as a community and worked for our kids' future once again. Not questioning the sacrifice because our investment in the lives of our kids was an unmistakable need.

While we were doing the right thing for our kids we were also doing something just as lasting. We were building a community that we are proud of. A community that has a high quality of life. A community where safe homes keep their value, and is the first choice of new home owners. Holden is recognized as a community that makes good choices investing in its future.

Today we are faced with another opportunity to invest in our community. Just as we faced the unmistakable need to replace our aging schools we must move forward and answer the undeniable need to replace our aging and inadequate police, fire, and emergency medical services facilities.

Public safety is as vital to the health, safety, and pride of our community as our homes, our churches, and our schools. Supporting the new public safety building is investing in our future. Please join me in voting YES next Monday, March 17.